Macron on Friendship Tree's Death: No Biggie

He plans to send a replacement oak
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 12, 2019 9:07 AM CDT
Macron: I'm Sending Trump a New Tree
Melania Trump and Brigitte Macron watch as President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron participate in a tree planting ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on April 23, 2018.   (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

France wants to give it another go, so look out for "friendship tree" No. 2. French President Emmanuel Macron says he'll send a new oak sapling to President Trump after the one planted on the grounds of the White House last spring apparently croaked. A dead tree—even one that came from a French forest where some 2,000 US servicemen were killed in World War I—can be replaced, so "it's no big drama," Macron said in a Tuesday interview, per CBS News. "The symbol was to plant it together."

In an April 2018 tweet featuring video of the tree-planting ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, however, Macron said the gift would serve as "a reminder at the White House of these ties that bind us." The oak reportedly died later in quarantine, a requirement to prevent the spread of parasites or diseases. Like the first, the replacement will come from Belleau Wood in northern France. "I'll send another one because I think the US Marines and the friendship for freedom between our peoples is well worth it," Macron said, per the BBC. (More trees stories.)

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